Swimming at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Women's 50 metre freestyle


The women's 50 metre freestyle event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 22–23 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.
Dutch rising star Inge de Bruijn added a third gold to her medal tally in swimming at these Games. She powered past the field to touch the wall first in 24.32, the second-fastest of all-time. Earlier in the semifinals, she blasted her own world record of 24.13 to snatch a top seed for the final. Sweden's Therese Alshammar captured the silver in 24.51, while U.S. legend Dara Torres powered home with the bronze in a new American record of 24.63, edging out defending Olympic champion Amy Van Dyken by 41-hundredths of a second. The podium placements also replicated the results of the 100 m freestyle, held on the sixth night of the Games.
Slovakia's Martina Moravcová finished off the podium in fifth place at 25.24, and was followed in the sixth spot by Germany's Sandra Völker in 25.27. Great Britain's Alison Sheppard and Japan's Sumika Minamoto closed out the field.
Notable swimmers missed out the top 8 final, featuring Australia's overwhelming favorite Susie O'Neill; Völker's teammate Katrin Meissner, who shared bronze medals with Jill Sterkel in the event's inception in 1988 as a member of the former East German squad; and Estonia's Jana Kolukanova, who grabbed the final spot from the prelims after winning a three-person swimoff.
One of the most popular highlights in the event took place in the first heat. Dubbed as the Crawler, Paula Barila Bolopa had finally completed a unique double for Equatorial Guinea, as she swam the slowest ever race by a female in Olympic history with a time of 1:03.97.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
DateEventNameNationalityTimeRecord
22 SeptemberHeat 10Inge de Bruijn24.46
22 SeptemberSemifinal 2Inge de Bruijn24.13

Results

Heats

RankHeatLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
1104Inge de Bruijn24.46Q,
284Dara Torres24.96Q
3105Amy Van Dyken25.04Q
494Therese Alshammar25.24Q
5107Martina Moravcová25.39Q, NR
695Sandra Völker25.44Q
7103Sumika Minamoto25.52Q
7101Vivienne Rignall25.52Q, NR
985Alison Sheppard25.53Q
10102Katrin Meissner25.64Q
11106Olga Mukomol25.67Q
1287Susie O'Neill25.73Q
1386Anna-Karin Kammerling25.79Q
1493Wilma van Rijn25.81Q
1566Rania Elwani25.87Q, NR
1667Mette Jacobsen25.96
1678Jana Kolukanova25.96
1697Ana Belén Palomo25.96
1982Cristina Chiuso25.99
2083Sue Rolph26.00
2191Han Xue26.01
2288Nadine Rolland26.04
2381Sarah Ryan26.05
2361Leah Martindale26.05
2598Helene Muller26.07
2676Alena Popchanka26.10
2792Eileen Coparropa26.19
2874Liesbet Dreesen26.21
2877Hanna-Maria Seppälä26.21
3075Ivana Walterová26.23
3196Judith Draxler26.26
3263Siobhan Cropper26.36
3373Yekaterina Kibalo26.37
3465Lara Heinz26.55
3568Caroline Pickering26.57
3662Kirsty Coventry26.58
3771Joscelin Yeo26.71
38108Jenna Gresdal26.79
3914Moe Thu Aung26.80
4052Chiang Tzu-ying26.84
4164Chang Hee-jin26.88
4143Yekaterina Tochenaya26.88
4372Athina Bochori26.90
4458Agnese Ozoliņa27.28
4553Pilin Tachakittiranan27.31
4654Marijana Šurković27.32
4757Hiu Wai Sherry Tsai27.38
4856Chantal Gibney27.46
4946Angela Chuck27.48
5051Jūratė Ladavičiūtė27.54
5155Elín Sigurðardóttir27.58
5245Marilyn Chua27.66
5344Duška Radan27.70
5441Maria Tregubova27.75
5547Saida Iskandarova28.08
5642Talía Barrios28.11
5735Ngozi Monu28.20
5837Tanya Anacleto28.78
5934Alisa Khaleyeva28.79
6038Sherri Henry28.81
6136Mbolatiana Ramanisa29.20
6232Roshendra Vrolijk29.31
6333Yuliana Mikheeva29.79
6425Theekshana Ratnasekera29.88
6523Samar Nassar30.05
6626Runa Pradhan31.28
6722Teran Matthews31.71
6831Francilla Agar32.22
6927Fariha Fathimath32.36
7021Hem Raksmey33.11
7124Noor Haki35.51
7248Aissatou Barry35.79
7313Paula Barila Bolopa1:03.97
15Fatema Hameed Gerashi

Swimoff

RankLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
15Jana Kolukanova25.87Q, NR
24Mette Jacobsen26.00
3Ana Belén Palomo

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Final